I disagree.
It is not a human nature to take the second look. A reflex action is an involuntary response to a stimuli, for which the neural signal does not reach your brain but rather propagates through the reflex arc in your spinal chord which is part of your peripheral nervous system.
But the second look is not a reflex. It is a classical case of classical conditioning. If it is a reflex, I would like to know why people, even children, who suffer from congenital conditions do not seem to have it. Because, from childhood they know how it is to be looked at, a second time. But for the rest of us, we have got so used to taking a second look, that we have now forgotten that is a something that we picked up from our environment.
I agree.
When you take the second look, you might be thinking about the welfare of the person. But humans, quite unfortunately, do not have the ability to read minds. So, though you might be look up to the person or think about their welfare, for him or her, you are no different from any other person who takes the second look. How do you expect him or her to know to know that your second look is not a look of pity or sympathy but of appreciation?
Sometimes you get the oppurtunity to interact with that person whom you gave the second look. The person comes to know that you were not giving him “the look”. But most of the time, we do not get an oppurtunity to explain our second look. And in such cases, it is the very right of the person who was looked at, to interpret your look in whatever way they want and also maybe feel hurt. Why then take the second look?
I dream.
I dream of a day when transgenders would be able to work with us in our cubicles without getting a second look or feel uneasy. I dream of a day when every transgender kid born in this country would not have to escape to Mumbai but take life as it comes, just because.
I dream of a day when a kid who suffers from a severe congenital condition, maybe Osteogenesis imperfecta or Aspergers or something deforming like a cleft lip or palate can still hang out with friends at the playground or go to school.
I dream of a day when different would be normal.
I wish.
I wish you wouldn’t stop teasing me because of this post or the one before. It was not about me. It about that person in my online support group who attempted suicide and then died from a fatal accident caused due to alcohol. It is about that person, again in my online support group, who said that she did not have a close friend other than from the support group.
It was not about me. I wish you wouldn’t stop teasing me.
